In a tiny kitchen in one of Fort Bragg's most secure buildings, Charles Pimble loses his sport coat in favor of a red apron with his name sewn on the front.

The retired lieutenant colonel, now secretary to the general staff of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, is putting the finishing touches on chicken turlu, a chicken and eggplant dish.

Like much of what goes on here, the recipe is secret.

And like so much else he does, this meal is meant for others.

Every Wednesday, Pimble prepares a large lunch for all of his co-workers. And every Sunday, he invites the Turkish soldiers he has mentored for the past 20 years to his house in Fayetteville for a home-cooked dinner.

"He keeps morale up. I don't know what it would be like here without him," says Marisol Valentine, one of Pimble's co-workers. "He's that one that kind of pulls people together, but he's behind the scenes. It's Mr. Pimble in the background pulling us together."

Pimble's brand of pulling people together extends well beyond the kitchen and the gates of Fort Bragg.

He may be best known on the installation for coordinating and directing the annual "Living Last Supper" play at Easter.

He pays for many of the scholarships given by the Miss North Carolina's Outstanding Teen Pageant, where he also volunteers as a chief judge.

For years, he has invited colleagues to accompany him to the Salvation Army to serve food and give out clothes and other essentials.

"I don't do all of those things, but I aspire to be like him," says Lisa Lofton-Berry, who met Pimble a decade ago through work and has remained among his many good friends. "He has a work persona that's so professional, and then there's this humble gentleman that remembers where he comes from and he gives back from a heart of sincerity."

Pimble is on the board of the USASOC Soldier, Family, & Command Support Association, a nonprofit group that helps soldiers who are struggling financially.

He leads a program to mentor women to become leaders.

And he donates to nearly a dozen other charities for veterans, minorities and people with disabilities.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recognized him last month with the Roy Wilkins Renowned Service Award, an honor for service members or Department of Defense employees who have shown a commitment to public service and civil rights.

"That's me by nature," says the 66-year-old Pimble, who can seem hesitant to discuss all of the good he has done. "I haven't talked this much about it in more than 20 years."

Charles Pimble grew up the fourth of seven children in a three-room house in Orangeburg, S.C. His father worked two jobs, and his mother was a seamstress.

Pimble remembers how his mother frequently helped neighbors, whether that meant making them a meal or taking them to doctors appointments.

When Pimble graduated from the segregated Wilkinson High School in 1965, he knew he wanted to join the military, but he didn't want to be drafted.

So he went to South Carolina State University and earned a math degree, then entered the Army as a second lieutenant.

His military career took him across the country and the world. In 1973 in Italy, Pimble, who had marched on the South Carolina Capitol in the 1960s with other civil rights leaders, became one of the Army's first race relations instructors.

He wrote poems to introduce the mandatory lessons and often had soldiers watch the Martin Luther King Jr. documentary "Montgomery to Memphis."

Sometimes, soldiers approached him in tears afterward.

As a mediator, he helped end the unit's practice of assigning black soldiers to extra duty far more often than whites.

Yet Pimble says the focus wasn't all black and white; he also worked to help Asian soldiers explain their culture and break down racial barriers.

Pimble's first Fort Bragg assignment came in 1983, when he finished training as a foreign area officer and studied psychological operations.

Pimble worked in Special Operations on Fort Bragg until 1990, when as a lieutenant colonel he was assigned to a second tour in Turkey.

He retired after 22 years in the military and became a civilian worker for the Special Operations Command.

Pimble has spent more than 40 years working for the military.

In the special operations community, even soldiers who never met him know his name.

In the 1990s, when the Internet was just taking off, a soldier crashed the network trying to send large mass emails to the entire command. After that, Pimble says, the commander decided that all information should go through Pimble before being disseminated.

Now, the training updates and schedules and opportunities to volunteer that reach about 28,000 soldiers and civilians are commonly called "Pimblegrams."

At least once or twice a month, Pimble meets someone who gets the emails but wasn't entirely sure that Charles Pimble was a real person.

He's also known for his red pen. Any office correspondence that goes to USASOC commanders has to make it past Pimble's pen first.

"He knows how to get his message across without appearing aggressive," says Dee Ray, assistant to another special operations general. "Everyone who comes in contact with him knows that and trusts that his word is good and his guidance is the best."

By all accounts, Pimble is the kind of man who never meets a stranger and never makes an enemy.

In the past two decades, Pimble has mentored more than 180 Turkish soldiers who come to Fort Bragg to train with U.S. special forces.

The Turks often refer to Pimble as "daddy" and tell their wives to call him in case of an emergency.

Others he has mentored look up to him in much the same way.

"He's my father," Arthur Berry says at the first mention of Pimble's name.

Berry has known Pimble for nearly a decade. "There's other families who are in need. Maybe they need transportation, money, a place to stay. There's not been a time I've seen him turn his head."

Pimble, who sleeps six hours a night and often arrives at work by 5 a.m., says he's just doing what comes naturally.

"Someone must keep the boat feeling as if it's not on rough seas," Pimble says, "and that's me."

Staff writer John Ramsey can be reached at ramseyj@fayobserver.com or 486-3574.

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